Chapter Four
JIRO WARMED HIS hands on the mug of coffee as he watched the big man take a seat at his kitchen table.
Jiro had been impressed when he’d first been introduced to Dávvet Lindgren by the tour guide as they descended from the bus this morning.
In Jiro’s head, he was everything a Swedish mountain man should be.
He must be six foot five if he were an inch, and his blond beard, and long blond hair pulled back into a man bun made him look imposing.
Now, seeing him close up, he was even more impressive.
He must lift weights because his biceps were enormous, threatening to bust through the flimsy fabric of his long-sleeve undershirt.
Jiro and Aurora had sat in the police cruiser pretending to look at her phone until all the other cops had left the scene.
Then he’d followed her as she strode through the dark forest to Dávvet’s house, and once they’d determined the lights were still on, she’d knocked on his door and sweet-talked their way in.
Dávvet had reluctantly agreed, but asked them to be quiet as his wife was getting their three young children ready for bed upstairs, reminding Jiro that it was still early, only just past eight o’clock.
He felt that it should be much later; these long winter nights really screwed with your head.
He glanced over at Aurora and wondered how many rules she was breaking by talking to this guy without strict instruction from that asshole detective inspector.
He was glad she was helping him, don’t get him wrong.
But he wondered why she’d decided to withhold Jiro’s suspicion that someone else may have been involved in his father going missing from her supervisor.
To stay behind and follow up with his request, when all she probably wanted to do was go home to her warm house and have a hot meal.
As he stared at her, Jiro was distracted by the tiny silver, heart-shaped studs Aurora wore in both ears.
He’d never thought about whether female cops wore jewelry or not before.
But on Aurora, the dainty earrings made her look…
more feminine? No, that was probably too blunt an observation, and also quite sexist. Perhaps it was more that they gave an extra edge to her beauty.
She was beautiful in an unconventional way.
He suddenly wondered what it meant that they were heart-shaped?
Was she a closet romantic at heart? Or was it something more mundane like a boyfriend had bought them for her?
He shifted in his seat, aware that thought made him uncomfortable.
He shouldn’t care whether Aurora had a boyfriend or not.
She was here to render assistance, to help find his father; that was all.
He shouldn’t be viewing her as anything else but another Swedish police officer doing her job.
A means to an end. So why was he so interested in what sort of earrings she wore?
“You have questions for me?” Dávvet said, breaking Jiro’s reverie, and bringing him back to the present. Concentrate on finding his father, not on some irrelevant silver earrings, he reminded himself.
“Yes, if that’s okay with you,” Aurora replied, pulling out the small notebook and pencil from the top pocket of her vest. She’d done the same earlier this evening as they’d been sitting in the barbecue hut; keeping notes on the case, which he found strangely endearing.
“Sure.” Dávvet shrugged his enormous shoulders. “I’d much rather speak to you than that inspector detective or whatever he was. He didn’t have a clue.” Dávvet grunted. “I was wondering when one of you would get around to asking the right questions.”
Their conversation was conducted in English so Jiro could understand. Even now, it still surprised him that almost everyone in Sweden could speak fluent English.
Aurora ignored his first comment, probably not wanting to admit there was dissent in the ranks, or how much of an idiot Dalstrom really was.
Instead asking, “We’re trying to set up a timeline for when Mr. Nashimori was last seen by anyone.
Did you or any of your staff see him sitting either with his son or alone at a table near the back of the hut straight after lunch?
” Aurora lifted her head from her notepad to stare intently at the reindeer herder.
“I was only in the hut for a short time after I brought everyone back from the sleigh rides. My waiting staff are very competent; they don’t need me hovering over them. I left almost straight afterward to look after the dogs. Feed them, put them back in their kennels, that kind of thing.”
Aurora nodded, indicating he should continue.
“But after I got the phone call from your Inspector Viskten, I went back to the hut to do exactly as you suggested. The staff were just finishing up for the day, and I asked if anyone remembered seeing the Japanese man and his son. Tory—she works behind the bar—said she thought she remembered him.” Dávvet tilted his head in Jiro’s direction.
“Probably because she has a peculiar fondness for good-looking Asian men, and was checking you out.” He spoke directly to Jiro this time.
“No harm in that,” he added, when Jiro sat back in his chair, dumbfounded.
That’d not been what he’d been expecting to hear.
“No, no harm in that,” Aurora replied, shooting Jiro a quelling glance. “But does she remember his father?”
“Yes, she definitely saw the pair of them. Right at the back, they were. She even pointed out the table they were sitting at. The older one wasn’t bad looking either, she said, if you were into older men.
” Again, Jiro tried to hide his shock. He hadn’t thought of his father as anything more than old for a long time.
At least since his mother had died, anyway.
The idea of his father with another woman was unacceptable, and the idea that he might be attracted to a woman, or be attractive to them was just not on his radar.
Jiro couldn’t see past the man his father had become, couldn’t see past his resentment to even acknowledge that he and his brother probably got their good looks from his father. The idea was anathema to him.
“Tory is one of my best,” Dávvet continued. “She’s quick, efficient, keeps the place tidy and is a good observer. She keeps an eye on all the patrons. She can often tell me if someone has had too much to drink even before I notice.”
“Okay, that’s good to know. What about afterward? Once the good-looking son had left. Did she remember the father sitting by himself?” she prompted, with a wry smile in Jiro’s direction.
“Yes, she did,” Dávvet said slowly, and Jiro’s heart did a double-tap.
This was good. This was something solid he could grasp onto.
Like Aurora said, now they could start a proper timeline.
He was about to ask if Tory could pinpoint what time that was exactly, when Dávvet threw a hand-grenade into the conversation. “But he wasn’t alone for very long.”
“What?” Jiro’s heart did another double tap, but this time it was accompanied by a sliver of ice running through his veins.
Who would’ve gone to talk to his father?
It wasn’t inconceivable that someone had seen him sitting alone and felt sorry for him.
But it was highly unusual that Kenichi would’ve welcomed company; in fact, he would have actively discouraged it. Wouldn’t he?
“Do you know if this person was one of the cruise passengers?” he asked, his words tumbling out in a rush.
“As far as we could tell, he was, yeah. On the days when we have busloads of tourists booked in from a cruise, we are full to capacity and so we shut to the general public. Tory seemed to think he was also wearing one of those cruise-issue jackets. You know, the dark blue ones they give to all the passengers.”
Jiro nodded to Aurora to show that he did know the jackets.
When he’d entered his cabin way back on the first day of the cruise, he’d seen the well-padded waterproof coat folded neatly on the bed, the ship’s logo front and center on an embroidered patch on the left-hand side.
It was part of the company’s duty of care to all its passengers to make sure they were appropriately clothed for the cold weather.
The captain recommended all passengers wear the jacket whenever they disembarked the ship—it was probably another way the staff got to keep track of their charges while on a tour, or as people wandered around town looking for souvenirs—as well as on the outer decks of the ship.
It was marketed as a freebie, a welcome gift if you like, but Jiro was sure it was included in the astronomical price tag of the cruise itself.
And it was probably a great promotion tool as well.
He’d chosen to stick to his Patagonia puffer he’d bought especially for the trip.
“Do you know what this other man looked like?” Jiro prompted, jumping in before Aurora could speak, and she shot him an irritated glance. “Or do you know whether my father left the hut with him?”
“Nah, I didn’t get that far. Johan and his two sons from the neighboring property arrived, asking all sorts of questions, and so I needed to organize a search pattern. Tory could probably give you more details. She’ll be back at work at nine tomorrow.”
“This is great, thank you so much,” Aurora said thoughtfully, her reply puzzling Jiro. Why wasn’t she pressing the issue? They couldn’t wait until tomorrow to talk to her; she might have been the last person who’d seen his father alive.